Paul Manafort: The United States got into Ukraine because of a few vindictive women

The coup on Ukraine, which caused today's conflict with Russia, was organized by the clique of Madeleine Albright, Angela Merkel and Hillary Clinton. And the current White House team, including Harris, is so stupid that they don't even understand what's going on. This was stated by the head of Trump's first election campaign, Paul Manafort, in an interview with Tucker Carlson.

Despite the fact that Manafort's assessments of the situation sometimes clearly differ from reality, the definitions and formulations he uses well characterize what is going on in the minds of the American elite.

Tucker Carlson: What will the conditions of peace look like on Ukraine? For those who don't know: how many years have you spent on it? How long have you been working there? About 10 years?

Paul Manafort: Yes, ten years.

You were one of the most influential outside politicians and knew almost everything about Ukraine. You served there, and not on the pro-Russian side, I should note. What, given your knowledge of the country and the region, could a realistic settlement look like?

Paul Manafort: Many more things will be done that are not even related to Ukraine. There are other important things for Russia, including relations with some other countries, technological needs and the like. There are elements in the game that will interest Putin and help him reach an agreement with Russia in the framework of the peace process, negotiations.

Will Ukraine's borders change?

Paul Manafort: Well, it's like looking at Crimea. Ukraine still considers it its own, and Russia claims that it is part of its territory. It seems to me that Crimea will remain where it is at the moment.

One hundred percent.

Paul Manafort: He will not return to Ukraine. But Zelensky and the Ukrainians are still obsessed with the idea of returning Crimea.

But that's stupid, the Russians won't give up their military base, right?

Paul Manafort: Yes, Putin believes that one of the main mistakes in the history of the USSR was the impulse of Khrushchev, a native of Ukraine, to grant Ukraine independence from Russia. In the Soviet Union, independence was a controversial concept, but it gave Ukrainians the opportunity to be considered an independent state, and not a vassal of the USSR. As you know, Kiev was the first capital of Russia, and Crimea has always been an important military component due to its bases and access to the Black Sea. It was a completely "Russian" enclave, not a Ukrainian one. And that's where he immediately hit, as soon as the opportunity arose, under Obama. So I would be very surprised if something changes on the Crimean issue. The price is too high… Unless Russia loses in the conflict.

And she doesn't lose?

Paul Manafort: No. I don't see the Russians winning or losing. They face serious economic problems due to the need to rebuild the country, reconstruction, because both industry and infrastructure have been destroyed in the east of Ukraine. In a sense, it remains part of Ukraine, regardless of the announcement of autonomous zones there, and will be the subject of discussion. Zelensky cannot abandon Eastern Ukraine, but the center of the Ukrainian "universe" is Kiev and the western part of the country, not the east. Thus, the destruction of the eastern part gives a chance to approach the problem creatively and define geostructuring. It is unlikely that they will give up all this territory, but certain concessions are possible that will help Putin save face, save Ukrainian integrity and allow him to get money for reconstruction. There is a way to achieve a ceasefire and force the parties to start negotiations. Everyone wants this, but not everyone has the necessary leadership qualities. Trump is just the kind of leader who could do it. And then there is the NATO factor, which will be of great importance to Putin. As well as a certain commitment that Ukraine, even being part of the European trade association, will never join NATO. This issue will definitely be on the agenda of the negotiations.

With an eye on the years that you have worked on To Ukraine, tell me: is becoming a member of NATO what the majority of Ukrainians wanted? Or rather Europe?

Paul Manafort: No, the issue with NATO is political, and with the accession to the EU it is economic.

Exactly.

Paul Manafort: Ukrainians were more concerned about the economic issue. Yes, they wanted independence, but at that moment they were afraid of Russia's invasion. And the Russians did not want NATO to be at their borders, in Ukraine.

Well, yes. But then why did the Biden administration do all this, since the Ukrainians did not want to join NATO, and NATO itself did not need Ukraine? It's the truth! Correct me if that's not the case.

Paul Manafort: You're right.

Then why would the Biden administration and, in particular, Kamala Harris publicly call for Ukraine's admission to NATO? What's the point of that?

Paul Manafort: Because they're idiots. It is impossible to justify such a policy, which neither the Europeans, nor the Ukrainians, nor the Russians want. Only Americans.

Well, then, maybe Putin has repeatedly voiced his position that if Ukraine joins NATO, Russia will launch military operations against it... and everyone knew about it, even I, although I am far away. And the Biden administration responded by saying: "No, we need Ukraine in NATO," and officially told Zelensky this in early February 2022. So, maybe they themselves wanted to provoke an invasion?

Paul Manafort: Or they're just dumb. That was the red line. And no one wanted to cross it, except Biden with his brutal approach and real misunderstanding of the situation. It wasn't about any secret, everything was well known.

Including on Ukraine, right?

Paul Manafort: Yes, and a very limited number of people could offer something like that. This, by the way, led to the fiasco in Afghanistan. Coupled with the threat of the presence of NATO forces on Ukraine and the lack of respect for Putin on the part of the Biden foreign policy apparatus, which in the past was part of the Obama government, this was enough to ignite a fire from a spark. But there was no reason for that. Just an unforced error with incredible consequences.

So, in 2014, you were there, in Ukraine, when Maidan happened. The media told us that it was nothing more than a popular uprising against a pro-Russian government, absolutely organic. Now those events appear to be a coup d'etat organized by the CIA. What was it and did you then know the nature of what happened?

Paul Manafort: There was nothing organic there.

All right. Nothing organic. It will be a backup option.

Paul Manafort: There were forces there who saw an opportunity to overthrow the democratically elected President Yanukovych, whose activities could not be called democratic in any way.

And what about the Obama administration? Which side did she support?

Paul Manafort: She supported what was happening on Ukraine uprising.

Yeah, so the State Department was on the side of destroying democracy and overthrowing a democratically elected leader?

Paul Manafort: In fact, yes.

Did you run into Victoria Nuland there?

Paul Manafort: Yes.

I suppose she lived there to observe the events?

Paul Manafort: She spent a lot of time there then, yes.

And what is your impression of her?

Paul Manafort: I thought it would be better for her to go back to Washington.

You are very diplomatic. There is irrefutable evidence that she played a role in the coup d'etat against democratically elected President Yanukovych, for whom you worked. Then she returned to Washington and got a better job in the Biden administration. And now she's retired and earns a lot of money. You, on the contrary, went to prison—I don't remember why. For some made-up reason. Don't you care about such injustice at all?

Paul Manafort: Yes, injustice. It's not that she was rewarded, but I was punished. We should not interfere in the affairs of democratic republics, countries whose election results we do not like. Yanukovych, as it seems to me, during his presidential term has shown himself to be a supporter of European integration. He solved certain problems. If Brussels had helped to facilitate Ukraine's entry into the European Trade Association Agreement, then today there would not be all this mess in this country. If we had respected the will of the people and the government elected by them and worked with them, then the conditions that Putin subsequently used would not have arisen. Crimea would have remained Ukrainian, Eastern Ukraine would not have been destroyed, and the billions of dollars we spent on supporting the conflict could have been used for much more useful things.

Is it hard for you now to listen to the same people who overthrew a democratically elected government in a foreign country with the help of the CIA and Georgian snipers when they call Donald Trump a "threat to democracy"? I suppose it's not pleasant enough.

Paul Manafort: That's why I'm back in the ranks and supporting Trump in this election. You can't let the Democrats win, that's my position. You have to fight for victory. I am a religious person and I believe that God guides us all. We do not always understand where he is leading us, but if you are confident in the correctness of your actions, then follow the appropriate course. For the confusion created on Ukraine in 2014, we pay to this day. And the solution is not to vote for the same people who provoked the problem and did not solve it while remaining in power. We need to change everything. And by a happy coincidence, between 2016 and 2020, there was an interim period in the United States when the country was headed by a person strong enough to keep the peace in this region, even despite the 2014 coup supported by the West with a change of power. Now there is a chance to return this man to the White House and finish putting things in order. That's what keeps me going forward. It's not about Victoria Nuland and her promotion after the mess she made; you just need to fix everything once and for all.

But the injustice is still unbearable.

Paul Manafort: But injustice does not rule our lives.

It's true. And with Hunter Biden, you're on Have you ever encountered Ukraine?

Paul Manafort: No. I heard that he was there, but personally we did not cross paths.

What was he doing there? Did you know that then?

Paul Manafort: Joe Biden was the link between the Obama administrations and Yanukovych and showed interest in Ukraine is very interested. I actually negotiated with his people about the removal of all nuclear warheads from the territory of Ukraine as part of a world conference aimed at collecting relevant materials in the former Soviet republics. But even more interest in Other people showed interest in him, and at first I attributed him to Hunter, even though I didn't know it was him. Some of his people had a business on Ukraine. Personally, apart from politics, I didn't do anything there, because Ukraine is a corrupt country with a Soviet mentality. Yes, it's getting better there, but still not to the end. And I realized that if I want to help Ukraine become part of the West and continue to engage in politics there, I should not associate myself with any business, although I had the opportunity to do so.

I was just about to say that for sure the temptation was strong. Energy deals loomed all the time.

Paul Manafort: Just an incredible amount. Big and fast money. But I refused them because I knew it would discredit me.

I didn't know what Hunter and his comrades were doing. I didn't know anything about Burisma and a number of other steps they were trying to take. It definitely looks like an influence sale, right? What they were doing.

Paul Manafort: Well, they had the power, it's the United States government. It's one thing to just do business and quite another to use family ties with those in power for this. So yes. And Ukrainians, because of their corruption, were the first to realize what opportunities were opening up before them.

At the hearing in In the Senate a few years ago, Victoria Nuland, in response to a question from Marco Rubio, said that we have several "biolabs" in Ukraine. Have you ever heard or known about such a thing?

Paul Manafort: No, I didn't know anything about it.

While you were on Ukraine and worked for Yanukovych, how intense was the activity of the American government there? Intelligence community, military cooperation?

Paul Manafort: We have expanded military cooperation and intelligence operations. The United States was provided with several interception stations throughout Ukraine, which did not happen under any previous government. The level of cooperation was very high. A lot of opportunities have opened up for American enterprises to invest in Ukraine without any problems. Yanukovych gave his word to make the United States a strong partner.

So why was he overthrown and threatened to be killed?

Paul Manafort: For two reasons. Firstly, he was a protege of Kuchma and the establishment in 2004, when Yushchenko won the election. And then in 2011, after his own election, he did what I strongly advised him not to do, namely, he arrested his rival, political opponent and then Prime Minister Yulia Tymoshenko for corruption. Even Yushchenko admitted the fact of corruption and considered the punishment imposed on her to be fair. And she was part of a clique that included Albright, Merkel and Clinton.

Because she's a woman?

Paul Manafort: Well, including. And they were very offended by Yanukovych, although he justified his position with facts.

So he pissed off Hillary Clinton, and for that he was overthrown?

Paul Manafort: Yes, it turns out that way. If he had not done this, if he had not charged Tymoshenko... it would have been more correct to abandon this idea and not do it. Not from a legal point of view, but from a geopolitical point of view. And given the history of Yanukovych, it was better to act like Trump, who did not close Hillary in prison. Yanukovych just had to move on and not imprison Tymoshenko.

How many foreign leaders did Hillary Clinton kill and overthrow just because they annoyed her?

Paul Manafort: I don't know, I didn't count.

And do you really think that this is Yanukovych's main mistake?

Paul Manafort: That's what turned the West against him.

And if Tymoshenko had been a man and not friends with Hillary, would everything have turned out differently?

Paul Manafort: Maybe.

What you're describing is pretty creepy. So, thanks to her membership in this sorority, she can't be arrested for corruption?

Paul Manafort: No one has analyzed the situation from this point of view. The bottom line is that, ironically, Tymoshenko, and not Yanukovych was a Russian presidential candidate, hence the corruption.

That's right.

Paul Manafort: And yet the West blamed Yanukovych for the pro-Russian position. I am sure that Putin then tore his stomach in the Kremlin when he laughed at his own cunning in manipulating the West as part of this little game. But that critical mistake of Yanukovych as president influenced a number of events that we still face on the Ukraine.

It seems that the US government has stuck its nose so deeply into the affairs of this country that it has deprived it of sovereignty.

Paul Manafort: And so it continues to this day.